New bill would protect contract employees from discrimination and harassment

Legislation introduced by nine House Democrats on Friday would extend discrimination and whistleblower protections to employees who work for contractors and federally funded health care facilities. It also would increase the financial liability of agencies in those cases.

"Agencies that engage in discrimination, retaliation, harassment, or violations of federal discrimination or whistleblower protection laws demonstrate a gross disregard for taxpayer dollars, undermine the confidence of the American people in the government, put the public's safety and services at risk, and reduce the government's ability to timely and adequately address vital public needs," the bill's authors wrote in the legislation's introduction.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, is the chief sponsor of the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act (H.R. 6780), known as No FEAR II, after the 2002 legislation that the bill seeks to expand upon.

Jackson Lee's bill would extend protection against harassment, discrimination and retaliation to employees who work for contractors and health care facilities that receive more than 50 percent of their funding from the federal government. The legislation covers part-time and temporary employees as well.

The bill also requires agencies that lose discrimination or retaliation cases to pay damages within two years, rather than "within a reasonable time," as the original bill required. And while federal courts typically have interpreted the Title VII liability limits for federal workplace discrimination cases at $300,000 per case, the legislation seeks to clarify that the cap is actually $300,000 per claim decided in an employee's favor, meaning employees can be awarded more than $300,000 for a single successful case.

The legislation imposes more stringent notification and reporting requirements on agencies. Within three days of the bill's enactment, agencies would be required to send their employees an initial e-mail or voicemail notification of their rights, and repeat that reminder annually. Thirty days after the bill's passage, the Government Accountability Office would be required to launch a No FEAR Oversight Office to track complaints and enforcement issues. GAO also would have to report costs associated with discrimination and retaliation claims 90 days after the end of each fiscal year.

Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based watchdog group, said Monday that while the bill is a great step to ensuring stronger equal employment opportunity rights for federal employees, it "bypasses important whistleblower protections."

Devine said No Fear II could complement landmark legislation (H.R. 985 and S. 274) currently sitting in conference committee that would reform the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act, which, since 1994, has been weakened by a series of rulings by the Federal Circuit Court. H.R. 985 contains provisions that would ensure jury trials for whistleblowers, coverage for FBI and intelligence whistleblowers, and protections for government contractors and federal scientists who challenge the approval of dangerous medications. Devine said passage of the conference legislation is GAP's No. 1 priority for the remaining months of the 110th Congress because, unlike No FEAR II, the legislation clearly defines whistleblower rights and creates due process channels to enforce them.

"These two pieces of legislation are complementary, but they don't overlap," he said.